As competition increases between manufacturers of integrated circuits, need to protect the proprietary information contained in the physical integrated circuit chip has increased, particularly in the view of the ability to reverse engineer integrated circuits using common failure analysis techniques such as de-layering and optical inspection. Many techniques have been described for preventing reverse engineering including self destructive chips. However, such a technique prevent routine failure analysis by the legitimate manufacturer. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a technique to increase the difficulty for reverse engineering integrated circuit chips while at the same time allowing routine failure analysis by the manufacturer.